My daughter was born 9-14-04. However I wanted the spelling of her name to "look" feminine, since it's so commonly shared. So I decided to spell it "PAYTYN". We love it and have had several compliments!

This name seems to be a real unisex name. Boy or girl I can't decide. My friend likes it for a girl.

-- Anonymous User 7/14/2006

Another name that seems to have come out of nowhere! This name is not bad, but I wonder how such names seem to suddenly become pretty popular very quickly when they didn't exist before.

-- Anonymous User 7/17/2006

My aunt wanted the name to be more feminine for my cousin. They spell it Paetan. I like it.

-- Anonymous User 8/7/2006

I know a few little girls named Payton, yet this has always been a boy's name, to me. There isn't anything feminine about it.

-- Anonymous User 8/8/2006

My 6 month old niece has this name, and it is an adorable name for a baby girl. They call her Pay-Pay. It's one of those names that can grow on you. At first I cringed when I heard it, but it's pretty cute now. I don't know how it will fit her when she's older, but as a baby name it's really unique.

I am finding that where I live Payton is used more for a girl and Peyton for a boy.

-- Anonymous User 9/28/2006

I'm sorry but I just do not understand why people choose these names! It's come out of nowhere straight to the popularity charts! All I see are toddlers and babies being called Payton or Emily! What is the world coming to?

-- Anonymous User 1/13/2007

A main female character on One Tree Hill is named Payton Sawyer. Also, there is the football player Payton Manning.

I really dislike this name, especially for a girl. It's so ugly sounding. When the average American says it, it sounds like Pay-n. The "T" sound completely disappears, and I just think it's such an ugly sound.

To the comment above, what average American are you hearing? Pay-n? Pay-TON. How could someone not pronounce the T?

-- Anonymous User 9/2/2007

In defense of BlueSomehow, we Americans DO drop our T's a lot. Examples are the way we say words like, "frighten" and "satin". Very few of us say "fry-tin" or "sa-tin"; we generally say "fryt-n" and "sat-n" with the T being insinuated at the end of the first syllable and not fully said at the beginning of the second syllable where it belongs. It may be "imperfect" pronunciation but it has come to be almost universal in American speech. Let's face it, all languages are constantly morphing. Watch old movies from the 1930's -- Lauren Bacall and Don Ameche didn't sound like we do now. Their accents were almost British to modern American ears. A sentence like, "what are you going to do" has become "waddyagonnadoo", and honestly, if you articulated your words in that sentence to perfection, people would think you were on something or a foreigner fresh from Berlitz! It is sad that we don't take more care and that we mostly follow the herd and cave-in to lazy pronunciation of our language. But. Waddyagonnadoo?

To those who left comments regarding their astonishment and apparent disapproval of the emergence of new names like "Payton": What's the big deal? How do you think names ever get started to begin with? Someone, somewhere a long time ago had to decide a certain set of sounds, like "fran" and "sis" sounded good together and decided to name their kid Francis! In a hundred years there will be a blog like this where old timers will comment, "And whatever became of the good ol' names like 'Payton'?" You watch and see.

I grew up with a girl named Paiton (my personal favorite spelling, boy or girl, but probably because it's the one I'm familiar with), and she was the only one I knew until I was in middle school (where one of our teachers had a 20 year old son named Peyton). I've only recently met my third Peyton, a newborn who was named after the football player.

Still, regardless of spelling or the fact that there's a 2:1 ratio, Payton/Paiton/Peyton is still a girls name to me. I guess it's all about first impressions.

Truly, this is not one of my favorite names. I don't really like the sound. But it really does sound like a name for a tomboyish girl.

-- Anonymous User 2/17/2008

It's not a bad name on males at all, even though I prefer the spelling Peyton, but I really don't like it on females. It sounds too boyish on any other girls than tomboys, and it will only sound natural on young, spunky, either androgynous or indie looking women, not on more ''mature'' women.

This is one of those few names that I honestly can't decide if I like it more on a boy or a girl. I know a Payton that is a boy and a Peyton that is a girl. I do think the e is more girly and the a more masculine. We call the boy Payt (PAAt) long a and the girl Peyton Eli like Payton and Eli Manning. Her middle name is Elizabeth.

Well my name is Payton and I love my name. My mom got the name off of one tree hill and she's loved it ever since. I don't think my name is tomboyish because I am very girly. Oh and thanks to all the people calling my name "uneducated" and "rubbish".

My name is Payton and I am a 23 yo girl. I hated my name as a child because it wasn't popular in the 90s and everyone always thought it was boyish. I was named after my grandfather so this name definitely did not "come from no where" it was popular around the time he was born and grew even more popular from the series "Peyton Place" Now I love my name! I do prefer the spelling Payton just because pay is spelled pay not pey. There is a football player named Walter Payton and the other player is Peyton Manning. So there are both variations on the field. It is a little weird that it has become popular, I was the ONLY Payton in my elem, middle, and high school. So it's a little odd running into 4 yo Paytons. I am a nurse and love my name now that I am a nurse. It usually stikes up a conversation with my patients, whether they be older and they talk about Peyton Place or they are a football fan. So now at 23, a nurse, and a female, I LOVE my name! BTW, I a noticed that a lot of the Paytons here are September babies and so am I! Thought that was cool!

My name is Payton and I love my name. I am pretty tomboyish and right now I think it suits me. I have never gotten teased for my name. And thanks to the people calling my name rubbish. When I was littler my close adult friends called me Peyton Manning because my last name starts with an m.

-- Anonymous User 11/15/2014

I have named my daughter Payton. I chose this name with research. My name is Patrick and that has been a name that had followed down in my family. Payton/Peyton derives from Patrick. It is either masculine or feminine and is much better than Patricia. Payton (girl or last name). Peyton (boy). I think it is a fruity name for a man.

My daughter's name is Payton Addison, born 6.5.14. I wanted her first name to be simple but make it more feminine with her middle name. I love it, even if it is a unisex name. I don't know what you guys are talking about when you say the average American drops the t... that's not true. The t is always pronounced or else they would be saying pane. We do change the pronunciation of the o, making it sound more like Payten. There's nothing wrong with it being unisex. My name is Brettany but most people call me Brett and I don't mind it. I also don't think it makes me any less mature, intelligent or lady like just because of my name. That's ridiculous.